In hard disk drives, sliders are suspended over spinning disks to exchange data with the disks. A slider may include both read and write heads. Sliders typically are supported by head-gimbal assemblies (HGA), with electrical traces extending from the slider, along the HGA, and terminating in solder pads that may be engaged by soldering or ultrasonic welding with similar pads on an arm electronics (AE) cable that in turn is electrically connected to the HDD controller. In this way, an electrical path is established between the controller and the read and write heads of the slider.
Prior to shipping the HGA to HDD assembly, it is desirable to test the HGA to ensure that any potential manufacturing defects are identified and appropriate action is taken. The tester used to perform HGA test includes a prober to make contact with the HGA pads.
The present invention recognizes that reliable contact between the prober and the HGA pads has grown increasingly challenging particularly as contact pad sizes are decreased, as they are in microdrive applications and in high data rate (HDR) drives. With this critical recognition in mind, the solutions herein are provided.